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The Arab world (Arabic: العالم العربي al-ʿālam al-ʿarabī ) refers to Arabic-speaking countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east,
and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast.
It consists of 21 countries and territories with a combined population of 360 million people straddling North Africa and Western Asia.
The sentiment of Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalisms within the failing Ottoman Empire.
The Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of the Arabs, and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab worlds,
a project known as Pan-Arabism.[1][2] Today, Arab states are characterized by their autocratic rulers and lack of democratic governance.
The popular protests throughout the Arab world of late 2010 to early 2011 are directed against the authoritarian governments and the associated political corruption,
paired with the demand for more democratic rights.
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